USD 2.0: New CAS Website Launches
The University of San Diego's complete website redesign and overhaul, known as USD 2.0, saw its latest milestone: the launch of the new College of Arts and Sciences website on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.
The new CAS website takes 19 departments that cover 29 majors, 37 minors, three graduate programs, five centers and countless resources and initiatives and combines it all into a tidy package of 600 web pages, down nearly 1,000 pages from the volume of the previous CAS website. The design and build spanned six months, with nearly a year prior devoted to content hierarchy and rewriting. A usability study was conducted with a set of prospective students from the college, ensuring that decisions about content, layout and design were made with the user in mind.
The new site is squarely focused on information and resources directed to prospective students and their families. Data throughout is sourced from campus systems such as the directory, internships, study abroad, student organizations, scholarships and news and events, which allows us to deliver accurate information in a more efficient way to pages throughout the site.
Features developed for this project include a new charting component, a technology that feeds alumni job information to the program pages within CAS and shows percentage of graduates employed or in graduate school and/or percentage of students who received their first job offer within three months of graduation from USD. All data is sourced from USD's Career Development Center.
The study abroad system is also new and improved and features a streamlined and more friendly user interface. Study abroad options are displayed prominently for all program pages. Travel options can also be viewed by term or world region of interest. Research data shows that study abroad considerations are foremost for prospective students when selecting the university that’s right for them.
Beyond CAS, the USD 2.0 project continues with a redesign for Copley Library, expected to launch in January 2022, and new websites for offices and departments across campus as part of Phase 3. Redesigns for the USD School of Business and the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering are also in the very early stages.
Out of 159 sites total in the USD web ecosystem, 25 are transitioned into the new 2.0 framework, marking our progress at 16% of our completion goal. The focus remains on academic, student-facing, and institutional websites.
New and enhanced features continue to be added to Camino, USD’s digital design system, and are tracked and announced via a changelog. If you maintain a website that’s been transitioned into the new system, be sure to bookmark the link and stay updated on new and exciting enhancements available to you.
— Joy Brunetti ’01 (BA)
Learn more at the USD Redesign website.